Finished landscapes -4th grade

         We have come a long way. We began this journey by simply exploring colors and how they change when mixed. To make the color mixing lessons even more powerful and effective, children are always limited to the primaries, white, black and brown. We then looked at photographs, drawings and paintings of various landscapes and made observations about shadows, light, size of objects and level of details we saw. To bring a level of DEPTH to the painting children were to make their foregrounds very detailed, they were to add shadows and place different sized items on different planes to make it look near or far. As the unit came to an end, it became pretty clear who grasped the concepts and who did not. I added an additional class at the end to be able to work with those children who had difficulty. 

Kindergarten students are painting rainbows using the three primarycolors

Making a six colored-rainbow by only using the three primaries (red, blue and yellow) is the culmination project every year for my kindergarten unit. It is just rigorous enough for all kids to feel super proud when they are done.....kids need to reach back in their memory and remember how to make the 3 secondary colors. 

Exploring cyclical patterns

We began this unit by simply observing various examples of cyclical designs....then coloring in a mandala, paying close attention to create a color pattern as we colored in the shapes. 

For the second class children were given a blank sheet with 8 equally spaced marks around the circle. I demonstrated how one would have to turn each time to add the new design around the circle. We also discussed the different between a cyclical design and a symmetrical one....and noticed that not all cyclical designs are symmetrical. These lessons are warm up exercises before I introduce and further clarify more complex concepts such a "translations, and symmetry". 

Below are examples from one who class......these designs were created by the students by using the technique shown above.

Kindergartners learning primary colors

I am so very proud of these paintings. Each one of the paintings you see here took about four 35 minute classes. 

For the First class: on a blank paper have kids explore painting with red and yellow and naturally learn how to make orange

For the Second Class: on the same paper as last class have kids explore yellow and blue 

For the Third Class: on the same paper as last class have kids explore mixing blue and red (may need to add some white to the blue so that a true purple (as kids know it) is a result. 

For the Fourth Class: On the same paper have kids use all three colors and white

Second graders enjoying the fourth grade sculptures

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Kindergarteners begin painting unit by mixing primary colors

Finished Romare Bearden- inspired collages

4th graders practice various landscape technique

Romare Bearden-Inspired collages

If you would like me purchase my powerpoint presentation for this unit please send $5.00 via PayPal to Miriam.Cutelis@yahoo.com and specify what language (Spanish or English) you would prefer and which email you'd like the presentation emailed to.  Once I share the presentation with you via Google Docs you can copy and change, add or delete any slides to fit your needs. The presentation will be sent to you within 24 hours of purchase.

Kinder puppets begin!